Mike Lowell will DH today, with David Ortiz (.154/.241/.269, and at least two strikeouts in each of his last five games) getting the afternoon off against a lefty. Flo:

[People] have no idea how badly you're struggling mentally, and how bad you try to do your stuff. ... So when people come out and start to try to bury your ass, it hurts.

Jacoby Ellsbury will also not play today. Terry Francona says

the soreness is getting a little more centrally isolated, which is good. He's still having a little trouble rotating. ... As much as we love having him out there, it's not a good thing to go too quick.

Ortiz has had a terrible start to the season, but J.D. Drew (.167/.259/.292) and Victor Martinez (.229/.270/.400) are not much better. Martinez's slugging is helped out by having three doubles and a dong among his eight hits. OPS+-wise, only Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis are truly above average.

Adrian Beltre (.345 average) and Mike Cameron (.217) have reached base the same number of times (10). Beltre has not walked in 30 plate appearances. And speaking of 30 plate appearances, Marco Scutaro did not strike out in his first 29 trips to the dish, before fanning in the eighth inning yesterday.

Well that is excellent news. Because if Congress has nothing better to do than worry about ballplayers dipping tobacco, every person must have a job, all diseases are cured, every homeless person is off the streets and we're not waging war anywhere in the world.

Henry Waxman (D-CA):

We don't let baseball players go stand out there in the field and drink beer.

For me, seeing Youkilis go over by the foul line and take a long pull off a tall boy in a brown bag would be pretty cool.

Missed yesterday's game due to JV game at same time. Is "frank" as in "Bot franked a couple..." a reference to Frankie Castillo? If so, that is funny (in a sick kind of way). Bot must have hit a couple of guys - I haven't checked the highlights yet.

sparky: it's a postal term. if a letter is franked, it can be sent for free. used for base on balls by sportswriters in the deadball era (dickson's baseball dictionary says 1st use in 1922, but he's wrong as writers in 1918 used it). not sure when it died out.

You have to wonder how much Papi's slow start and attitude hurts the team, he was always on that top step waiting to hug someone, or laughing with someone in the dugout.I feel he takes his failure more personally , then as "ok I stink right now but how can I help the team", by pitching fits and worrying about people raggin on him seems a little amateur.

Even if he starts doing well, I believe he will have a chip on his shoulder , and his attitude will still be lousy....

mmmm, this game sounds like it might have been more enjoyable watching those damn 13 year-olds throw rainbows from 3rd that bounce 2 feet in front of my 1st baseman. At least it was only a practice tonight, but I've seen it to much in games as well. Of course, I could have suffered through both, since it was a day game. Of yeah, there is that work thing, isn't there?DamnI sure would like to replicate FY 8 times. (I know, he doesn't pitch, but we need a spare in case one of the others gets hurt)